NASA’s First Asteroid Sample Has Landed, Now Secure in Clean Room

Sunday, 24 September 2023

After years of anticipation and hard work by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) team, a capsule of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu finally is on Earth. It landed at 8:52 a.m. MDT (10:52 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, in a targeted area of the Department of Defense’s Uta

Planetary Positions

04.12.2024 at 08:22:48 UTC

Planet	Longitude
The Sun	12 Sag 40' 39"
The Moon	19 Cap 01' 49"
Mercury	16 Sag 49' 44" R
Venus	26 Cap 37' 35"
Mars	06 Leo 07' 30"
Jupiter	16 Gem 44' 10" R
Saturn	13 Pis 00' 06"
Uranus	24 Tau 32' 16" R
Neptune	27 Pis 08' 05" R
Pluto	00 Aqu 18' 10"

Solar Status

BZ Status:
Proton Density:	density
Proton Speed:	speed k/sec
KP Status:	1.33

Type	Dec 4	Dec 5	Dec 6
Active	10%	10%	15%
Minor	5%	5%	5%
Moderate	1%	1%	1%
Strong	1%	1%	1%
Kp Index Prediction
00-03UT	1.33	1.67	2.33
03-06UT	1.33	1.33	1.67
06-09UT	1.33	1.33	2.00
09-12UT	1.33	1.33	1.67
12-15UT	1.33	1.33	2.33
15-18UT	1.67	1.33	2.33
18-21UT	1.67	1.67	2.33
21-00UT	1.67	1.67	2.67
Solar Activity
Solar flare activity has been at low levels. There have been five C-class flares with most of the activity coming from newly numbered Region 3916 (S16E72, Cai/beta). Region 3906 (S16W76, Eko/beta-gamma) and Region 3912 (S05E11, Eai/beta) both produced C-class flares, the largest being a C6.1 at 03/0544 UTC from Region 3906. There have been no Earth-directed CMEs observed in available coronagraph imagery.
Solar Wind
Solar wind parameters reflected the arrival of a weak CME early in the period and have been enhanced since. Total magnetic field was between 12-14 nT early on and has remained around 10 nT for most of the period. The Bz component varied between -7 and 12 nT. Solar wind speeds have averaged around 420 km/s. The phi angle has been mostly positive (away from the Sun) but has had three transitions into the negative for about 2-4 hours at a time.
Energetic Particle
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux was at normal to moderate levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux remained at background levels.

NASA’s First Asteroid Sample Has Landed, Now Secure in Clean Room

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